From a Foggy Drive to Four-Part Harmony:
The Story of the Harmeneers

Every chorus has a beginning.

For the Harmeneers, it began on a rainy, foggy evening in May 1992, with one singer sitting in the parking lot of Staunton River High School.

A Long Drive and an Idea

Bill Wenzel was waiting for the rest of his “commuter quartet”: Blanton Bryant, Stan Carey, and Roy Rardin. All four were members of the Virginia Gentlemen Barbershop Chorus, which rehearsed at Roanoke College in Salem.

The weather that evening was miserable. Rain drizzled through patches of thick fog as Wenzel sat with the car running and the lights on, waiting for his singing partners to arrive.

Eventually, it became clear that they had wisely decided to stay home.

Wenzel, however, made the trip.

The drive to Salem took about an hour and a half, and the return trip through increasingly thick fog took even longer. Somewhere along that long road home, an idea that had been simmering became a decision:

Smith Mountain Lake needed a barbershop chorus of its own.

Wenzel wasn’t the only one thinking it. Jim Smith, who had made the trip to Salem himself a time or two, had reached much the same conclusion. At one point, Wenzel, Smith, and the other members of the commuter quartet had even gathered at Smith’s home to talk about the possibility and, naturally, sing a few songs.

Their earliest configuration was unconventional: three baritones and two leads attempting four-part harmony.

But there was something there.

By the time Wenzel arrived home from that foggy drive in May, he knew what he wanted to do. He would help build a barbershop chorus at Smith Mountain Lake.

The First Gathering

Wenzel placed an announcement in the June 3, 1992, edition of the Smith Mountain Eagle, inviting local male singers to an evening of fellowship and barbershop harmony.

The following Sunday evening, they gathered at the Smith Mountain Lake Welcome Center.

Wenzel, Bryant, Carey, and Rardin were joined by Charlie Bray, Richard Chamberlain, Jack Davis, Floyd Ferguson, Irv Latham, Pat McCurnin, and Carl Ostertag.

Eleven men had answered the call.

The Harmeneers had not yet been named, but the chorus that would become the Harmeneers had begun.

One Dollar at a Time

Over the next several months, the fledgling chorus grew. Jim Smith, Bill Story, Jim Gregory, and others joined the group, and rehearsals were held in members’ homes.

Lowell Logwood, formerly the music director of the Virginia Gentlemen, became the group’s first director.

The finances were simple. Each singer contributed one dollar per week, and Logwood received a stipend of $10 per rehearsal. Wenzel served simultaneously as president, secretary, and treasurer.

Then came a home.

Through the efforts of Floyd Ferguson and Carl Ostertag, both members of Bethlehem United Methodist Church, the group held its first rehearsal in the church fellowship hall on February 1, 1993.

That relationship would endure for decades.

Becoming the Harmeneers

By the spring of 1993, membership had grown to approximately 20 singers. Treasury funds purchased songbooks, pitch pipes, and four-part learning tapes.

But the chorus still needed a name.

At the June 14 meeting, the singers considered several possibilities and came remarkably close to becoming the “Chordringers.”

Instead, they chose a name that would become part of the Smith Mountain Lake community for generations:

The Harmeneers.

The group was beginning to look the part, too. Blanton Bryant brought a blazer to rehearsal and suggested matching jackets would improve the chorus’s appearance.

Soon the Harmeneers had matching jackets and ties and were singing throughout the community, including appearances at the Smith Mountain Lake Wine Festival and the 4-H Center.

Their first quartet, The Senior Class, was also formed, featuring Stan Carey on lead, Jimmie Reynolds on bass, Charlie Stott on tenor, and Bill Wenzel on baritone.

What had started as a handful of singers gathered in homes was becoming an established chorus.

Joining the Barbershop Society

Later in 1993, the Harmeneers began seriously discussing membership in the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, today known as the Barbershop Harmony Society.

There was one significant hurdle: a new chorus needed at least 25 members.

The Harmeneers got to work.

By the end of October, 22 singers had signed the Society license. Each contributed $12 toward the licensing fee, with the chapter treasury covering additional costs needed to complete the application.

On January 10, 1994, the Harmeneers received their provisional license. That same evening, the chorus voted unanimously to incorporate as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization.

The final milestone came on May 16, 1994, when the Harmeneers’ 25th member signed the charter.

They were official.

“It Is Done”

Now they needed to celebrate.

The Virginia Gentlemen, the Roanoke chorus that had sponsored the Harmeneers’ membership in the Society, joined them for a Charter Show on Sunday, July 17, 1994, at Bethlehem United Methodist Church.

The Virginia Gentlemen opened the evening, followed by their quartet, Time Was. Both received standing ovations.

Then came the Harmeneers.

Twenty-two singers walked one by one from the choir room and joined the Virginia Gentlemen. Together, more than 50 voices filled the sanctuary with five songs in barbershop harmony.

Those who were there remembered the sound filling the church.

Some remembered tears.

Following the applause, the Harmeneers’ charter was presented to the Rev. Riley Smith to be displayed at Bethlehem United Methodist Church.

What Bill Wenzel had imagined during that long, foggy drive two years earlier had become real.

The Harmony Continues

The charter was not the end of the Harmeneers’ story. It was the beginning.

In the years that followed, the chorus continued singing throughout the Smith Mountain Lake region, welcoming new members, forming quartets, learning new music, and presenting annual performances for the community.

The names and faces have changed. Repertoire has changed. Barbershop itself has continued to grow and evolve.

But the idea at the heart of the Harmeneers remains remarkably close to the one that brought those first singers together in 1992: people gathering for fellowship, music, and the unmistakable joy of voices locking into harmony.

More than three decades later, the Harmeneers are still singing.

And to think, it all started with a very long drive home in the fog.